install gone wrong

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

i havd found a tutorial on some tech site that showed how to optimise windows by deleting files in a few directories etc. this seemed to work fine until i wanted to install other windows components. after tryin to install them from the windows cd etc it still would not work. so i tried doing a windows reinstall (not full) and it gets 3/4 the way through an stops because it doesnt have some files. will a full install get around this???? and if so how can i get to do a fresh install halfway through one??? or any other ideas

Just out of curiosity what files did you delete? Can you provide a link to that site?

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

xp pro

found it!!
http://iamnotageek.com/articles.php?aid ... er_Windows

prob is when i restart the system it continues with the current installation.

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

can i get to do a full install (with it potentially not working) or do i need to reformat?

JrzyCrim

Mastermind

Posts: 2062

3+ Months Ago

When you boot with your CD, you should be prompted to 'Press any key to boot from CD'.

Press any key when you see that prompt and setup should start from the beginning.

JrzyCrim

Mastermind

Posts: 2062

3+ Months Ago

DR01D wrote:

can i get to do a full install (with it potentially not working) or do i need to reformat?

If you are going to do a full install, I'd recommend reformatting.

Are there files you would like to recover first? What type of file system was your hardrive formatted with originally? NTFS or FAT32?

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

hmmm ill have a look when i get home. thanx heaps

*hopefully wont need to reformat

ATNO/TW

Super Moderator

Posts: 23454

Loc: Woodbridge VA

3+ Months Ago

He may need to adjust his CMOS setting so CD is first boot device. I'm not sure if Hard drive is first boot device you will get that prompt.

JrzyCrim

Mastermind

Posts: 2062

3+ Months Ago

Yep, if the hard drive is the first boot device, you will never see that prompt unless the hard drive has no boot sector.

I have mine set for this order:

1) Floppy
2) CD-Rom
3) Hard Drive

ATNO/TW

Super Moderator

Posts: 23454

Loc: Woodbridge VA

3+ Months Ago

ditto Jim for the boot order. Pretty standard, although some set hard drive first.

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

ill try the full install first hopefully wont get the same error as the other install.

cant recall what file system sorry

otherwise i will have to format i guess

atno, yeah i was thinking i would have to do that cause my hd is the boot drive.

edit// sorry bout this post i know there topics about installing xp and i can do that, just that i stuffed it so the actuall install didnt work so i wasnt sure how to fix it

JrzyCrim

Mastermind

Posts: 2062

3+ Months Ago

I'm sure a full install without formating will work. Repair installs can be pretty flakey sometimes.

I've never done a full install while leaving the old. I guess it will ask you to install to a new Windows directory. Not sure what will happen to the things left in Program Files directory. I think they will still be there but they won't be usable. The registry entries for your 3rd party applications will get wiped out during the new install.

Good luck.

ATNO/TW

Super Moderator

Posts: 23454

Loc: Woodbridge VA

3+ Months Ago

If I'm not mistaken, it will overwrite Winnt (Windows 2000) or Windows (XP) directories and rewrite Documents and Settings, but I'm fairly certain that it leaves the rest of the programs and files intact. I ended up doing that by accident (even though that's what I wanted to do) on a Win2K machine a couple days ago. I was pretty amazed at what was still there and am still trying to figure out exactly what I did.

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

yea i was wondering what a full install actually does, i remember doing an install a while ago and it seem nothing had really changed.

probably puts everything back where it should for doing silly things like i did

JrzyCrim

Mastermind

Posts: 2062

3+ Months Ago

DR01D wrote:

yea i was wondering what a full install actually does, i remember doing an install a while ago and it seem nothing had really changed.

probably puts everything back where it should for doing silly things like i did

That's what a repair install, also known as an in-place upgrade, should do. Like I said, however, repair installas aren't always reliable.

I've been doing some searching to find out what the consequences of doing a full install are while leaving the old. I haven't found exactly what I was looking for. Here's what I did find:

1) You will most likely end up with another entry in your boot.ini. Upon reboot, you'll be offered two installations of XP that you can choose to start.2) The original Windows folder will remain and another folder will be created for the new install

Quote:

The original install folder is usually called Windows and subsequent folders will be derivatives of Windows or Winnt.

See http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#two

I can't be sure if this is how it will go down since your last installation attempt stopped before it was completed. However, if you do end up with two 'windows' folders, the instructions at the above link should help.

Still trying to find out about the "Program Files" folder and other considerations.

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

interesting, i do recall something like that happening.

guess i will find out tonight, will let yall know

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

all is good

it kept wanting to finish the install so like you guys said boot from the cd. it recognised there was an installation and i could start over without reformatting.

pretty much rewrites all your settings but it didnt delete other folders i had on the drive.

thanx for all the help guys, think ill give up on the tweaking just to unstable

JrzyCrim

Mastermind

Posts: 2062

3+ Months Ago

Thanks for the update. Glad you got things in order.

If you are interested in optimizing, I'd suggest disabling unecessary services. It's a good place to start.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

That's a great reference which details what's safe to disable and what isn't.
I'd recommend setting a restore point before you start and disabe a few at a time, making note of the ones you do disable. If things work fine, set a new restore point and disable a few more. That way, if things start acting funny, you can just re-enable the last services you disabled or at the worst, go back to your last restore point.

DR01D

Expert

Posts: 660

Loc: Australia

3+ Months Ago

no probs, thanx

thats a good link, ill have to try some of those out

and yes i will also start using restore points too haha

cheers

JrzyCrim

Mastermind

Posts: 2062

3+ Months Ago

Personally, I keep System Restore turned off. However, I do turn it back on if I'm going to make radical changes or experiment.